$100 in 1936 is worth $1,763 in 2017,
because prices increased 1663.5% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,763
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1663.5%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,763
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,663
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1936 → 2017
$1,763
$100 in 2017 → 1936
$5.67
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2017
Between 1936 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1663.5%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2017: the 1936 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 81 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
Every 1936 amount converts to 2017 at the same ratio, 17.63: $1,000 becomes
$17,635, and $10,000 becomes $176,345.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2017
$1.00
$17.63
$5.00
$88.17
$10.00
$176
$20.00
$353
$50.00
$882
$100
$1,763
$500
$8,817
$1,000
$17,635
$5,000
$88,173
$10,000
$176,345
$100,000
$1,763,453
$1,000,000
$17,634,532
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2017
Between 1936 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 4560.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 498.2%, against 1663.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$1,763
Medical care
4.86%
$4,660
Food
3.76%
$1,985
Transportation
3.32%
$1,410
Apparel
2.23%
$598
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1936: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1936 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–2017 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1936, at end
1936–1940
0.18%
0.7%
$101
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$173
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$213
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$279
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$593
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$940
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,239
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,569
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,763
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $409 by
1976, on its way to $1,763 in 2017; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,763; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,763 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2017/